Sheri - Back from the Brink

Well, my third half marathon is in the books. I can't say that all went as well as I had hoped, but it went well enough. Didn't make my hoped-for finish time (boo!) but a new PR was set (yay!) 

Tradition is to make a weekend of these things, so Hubby and I drove down to Monterey Friday night. Since we wanted to miss most of the traffic, we stayed in town to eat dinner out, then at home to pack before heading south around 8 pm. Oldest son is living in Marina to attend CSU Monterey Bay, so he was pretty excited to have family arrive and provide free restaurant food (and friendly faces too). We gathered him up to do a clothes shopping trip at the local Kohl's for their late-night sale. Task was to get him a sports jacket for our upcoming cruise, and we also hit up the clearance racks, and I managed to get a new sweater and work slacks, but not before end-of-the-week/late-in-the-evening crankiness sent Hubby to wait in the car for the madness to end.

We arrived at our hotel (Colton Inn) just after 11 pm, which was late enough to get our keys in an envelope taped to the office door instead of an official check-in. But our assigned room had not in fact been cleaned (major ICK!) so Hubby was off to rouse the night staff to change our room. Thankfully, all was remedied and we were in a clean room and unpacking by 11:30.

Saturday morning the three of us had a delightful breakfast at Archie's American Diner in Pacific Grove. This is our new favorite utility restaurant in the area, since they have an extensive diner type menu at very reasonable prices. They also have an awesome ocean view and ample people watching opportunities since it is situated across the street from the bike pedestrian trail and is just up the street from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The three of us had a great time catching up while Hubby and I carbo-loaded (I had two HUGE blueberry pancakes. This is why I run!)

After our meal, we set off to enjoy the scenery by walking around the Cannery Row area and check out parts of the next day's race route. Of course, after all this walking, we went to our other favorite Monterey establishment, the Ghirardelli Fountain shop. Hubby thinks we have to stop by every time we go to visit Oldest son, you know, just because. Hubby and I shared a Mint Bliss sundae, which was just enough to get a good taste, but not enough to feel bloated and guilty (running only assuages so many calories, right?)

We still had to hit the Expo to pick up our bibs, so we drove back to the hotel and then walked downtown. This was my first actual race expo, but there were only vendors, no presentations to sit through. Hubby and I did some shopping, and I found a nice ASICs water resistant jacket with race logo embroidery for $50. Other than that, prices weren't that great, since the Gilroy Outlet mall has plenty of sporting goods stores that do better.

After that excitement, we walked back to the hotel. Normally Hubby and I would take an afternoon nap on the day before a big race, but Oldest son really wanted to visit some more. So I caught up on some magazine reading while they talked (even MORE) about World of Warcraft. Before you know it, my parents arrived to meet my son at a nearby pub for another free meal for him. Hubby and I went to Jamba Juice for a nice healthy and light smoothie and we split one of their sandwich wraps.

With an early bedtime, we watched a DVD in our room (Sunshine Cleaning, pretty good little movie) and it was lights out by 9 pm.

With a race start time of 7:05 am, I woke up at 5:00 to eat my Kashi/skim milk breakfast. But, there was No.In.Room.Coffee.Maker!! Nothing is open that early on Sunday morning either. I really should have gotten a cup from the hotel office the evening prior and re-heated in the microwave, but hindsight is 20/20. I tried to stop at a local bakery on the way to the start, but on top of a $.79 charge to use the ATM card I had brought with me, they wanted a $5.00 minimum (shouldn't it be one or the other?). Not worth it for a small cup of caffeine in my book.

The race was set up with corrals based on your own estimated finish time that were provided to race organizer at registration. Bib numbers included your corral letter, so cheating forward was a little more difficult, even if it was only peer pressure, if not the presence of volunteer Marines in each corral. I think this is the best way to organize a big race, because the least experienced (and slow) runners seem to be the most likely to want to start as far forward as possible. I mean, I'm a mid-pack runner, but the last thing I want to do is waste energy in the first mile darting around slow runners who should have started in the back. So each corral started separately, about a minute apart, so there was virtually no need to run around anyone. It was awesome to run in the midst of people going my same pace!

It was pretty cold at the start, I'd say in the high 40s, so I wore my cheap gloves and my beanie cap, that could both be easily tucked into my Amphipod belt once I warmed up. I like to bring my own water to a big race so I can bypass the water stop craziness. I was really glad I wore my long sleeve compression shirt under my MMRF singlet. The cold temps kept me feeling a bit creaky for longer than normal, and I never felt so warm that I regretted the long sleeves. The course wound around the downtown area a bit before heading into the tunnel that goes under downtown. That offered a great view of the crowd of runners in front of me, and of course people whooped it up in the tunnel. Fun!

(TMI alert!) Just as we entered the Cannery Row area, I started to wish I had gotten my pre-race coffee and associated porta-potty visit before starting. Ugh! 10 miles to go, and I had to GO! Keeping in mind my goal of a sub-2 hour time, a potty break was just not in the schedule. So I soldiered on. I noticed a guy carrying a full size American flag on a six foot flag pole, and tried to keep up. I tried to tell myself it was only a bit of discomfort, that I could just suffer through. Then the rolling hills of this course started in earnest. They weren't steep, and they weren't long, but they were mentally taxing, requiring constant pace adjustments. Double ugh!

Of course, the views alongside the ocean were amazing, but I was not enjoying them. My attention was on the porta-potties! 'Should I stop?' 'How far to the next one?' 'Is there a line?' and 'ugh, now my tummy feels queasy too'. And that guy with the flag? He was about 400m in front of me, then I lost him. By the time I made it to the turnaround point, it was obvious that I was no where near my time goal, so I decided to make the stop and at least enjoy the rest of the race. I only wish I had stopped sooner, because I felt so much better, I was able to turn on the speed and really finish strong to get a new PR. Here's my official results:

Overall: 1826 out of 4814

Women: 806 out of 3057

F 45-49: 71 out of 355

Age/Grade: 58.92% Place: 942

Split Time 7.5 Miles: 1:15:37 Pace: 10:05

Finish: 2:05:22 Pace: 9:34

Tag Time: 2:05:22

Gun Time: 2:09:34

Check out that split time! I was really dog slow at that 7.5 mile mark compared to my normal long run training pace. That translates to a final leg of 5.6 miles at 8:53 pace. Talk about a negative split! And I passed lots of runners in the last two miles, including that flag guy. So my take-home lesson is to just GO. As long as there isn't a line to the porta potty, the time spent is worth it. OK, end of TMI.

I am kind of bummed that my parents didn't actually get to see me cross at the finish (they missed me in the crowd), but my son did see me and got a picture. I met up with them after I went through the food tent. I was feeling a bit queasy still and really wiped out. Hubby was not expected for another hour, so I wandered over to the Customs Plaza to try for some beer and hot soup, but was too overwhelmed by the crowds so I went back around to try to rest a bit. Hubby came in at 3:28:13, even more wiped out than I was. He had never gone much over 10 miles in training, and those hills nearly beat him. But he finished and is already talking about the next race. By the time he finished, the crowds had dissapated, so we both got our beer and soup (and it was good).

Hotel check out time was 12 noon, so we made plans to meet my parents and son for lunch at 12:15 and walked up the street to our room to shower and pack up. There is nothing better than a hot shower after a long run, even if ice might be better for your muscles. Managed to check out about 11:58, and drove to California Pizza Kitchen at the Del Monte shopping center. Hubby ordered a Newcastle straight away, and I was so happy to see that they served Diet Pepsi (not Coke). The one thing I forgot at home were my compression leg sleeves, and I really started to miss them while sitting in the restaurant. Ouch, my legs were sore.

My parents managed to drive past the restaurant and went to the opposite end of the shopping center. My son was so sweet in how he kept calling their cell to guide them to the right location. He even went outside to flag them down. My parents are only in their sixties, so they are not incapable, but he has really stepped up to help them out when they ask him. Hubby and I must have done something right.

We ordered the garlic foccacia appetizer (yum) and I had the italian tomato & basil pizza on honey wheat. I could only finish half, and didn't even want dessert. Too bad, because they had some awesome sounding cheesecake choices.

For my Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation fundraiser, I ended up with just over $1100, short of my goal of $1500. I'm kind of disappointed that I got very few small donations, and really got by with $100 donations from close family. So many thanks to them!! I know that MMRF is a much less well known charity than Team in Training, but I chose this one because it sends a much higher percentage of funds raised to actual research activities. I am not sure if I'll sign up for another charity race in 2010, but I'm fairly certain that if I ever do get up the nerve to try a marathon, I'll be doing it for a charity.

I have just under four weeks until the Big Sur Half Marathon race(http://www.bigsurhalfmarathon.org), and I?m less than half way toward my fundraising goal of $1500.  I hope that you can support me in some small way to help fund clinical research to search for treatments for Multiple Myeloma.  You can go to my fundraising website here(http://www.active.com/donate/2009UmbrellaMarathon/sherijung).

Saturday I ran the longest long run of this training cycle,15 miles.  This was only the second time I?ve ever run this far, and it was not easy! I ran 14 miles two weeks ago, but 15 seemed much more difficult than just one additional mile. 

I got up early to caffeinate and eat breakfast before I ferried Adam over to the high school for his PSAT at 7:45 am.  I let Steve get a head start on me for his long run, because he would need to be finished in time to pick up Maggie (since she is not quite the long runner that I am). I put on all my gear and supplies: ipod with Nike+ to keep me company and keep track of the miles, my waist belt mounted water bottle loaded with Cytomax for energy and electrolytes, extra ShotBloks for more sugary calories in the last few miles, cell phone to call for Maggie?s pick up, a collapsible waterbowl for her, and of course Maggie herself tethered to me on her leash with a roll of plastic bags for clean up after her pit stops.

 The weather was a bit funky, starting out clear, but then clouding over but remaining bit warm and muggy, with very little breeze.  I think this is what made even the first half of the run seem hard.  But no fear, the clouds soon burned off, but that just made it seem hotter, just not so muggy.  I know I?m whining?the maximum temperature was probably only 73. 

I took my usual long run route, from home through our local school/city parks, and then down the street to Cataldi park for a loop past all the squirrels there (if you?ve seen ?UP? then you know how Maggie behaves).  We go further down the street to Penitencia Creek park and run past the ducks and geese at the pond there,then we take the Penitencia Creek trail all the way along the creek, under Hwy 680, and around another pond at a park next to Independence High School.  There were quite a few Canadian geese next to this pond, but by this time Maggie was too tired to notice.  Steve still wasn?t home yet, so we made our way back along the trail and headed to the other end of the trail where there was another portion of the park, this time with a water district pond, and an impromptu dog party taking place.  Too bad, Maggie, we have to keep going!

Steve had to jump in the car right after completing his 9 miler to rescue my poor Maggie at mile eleven (her longest run ever!)  She is always glad to see a friendly face come to pick her up.  But I had more running.  Amazingly, I was able to pickup the pace.  I think I just wanted to be done.  At the half marathon mark, I was at about 2:04 total time.  I was going a bit too fast, no wonder it felt hard.  My target pace was 9:38, but I was running at about a 9:28 pace instead.

I finished this long run feeling completely spent and sore.  I tried out some icing of my legs to see if it would help with soreness?not sure if it helped overall, but it sure did feel good while I was doing it. I bought some Zensah leg sleeves(they are really thick lycra to help with circulation for the lower legs) for after this run, so I wore them all day. They felt really good, so I wished they were longer to help the aches in my upper legs too.  I felt pretty uncomfortably sore for the rest of the day, but a good night?s sleep was all that was necessary to feel completely better by morning.

Quick plug, I’m running the November 15 Big Sur HalfMarathon as a charity run for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.  Please consider supporting me by giving to this very worthy cause.

On to the race report…

I listen to a number of running podcasts during my runs.  I find that the miles pass by morequickly, and it’s almost like having a human running partner who runs just my pace.  Since I listen to Phedippidations, I felt duty bound to enter the World Wide Festival of Races this year on October 10-11.  This is a virtual race with runners all around the world signing up to run a half-marathon, 10K, or a5K.  

Since the Big Sur Half is in mid November, I signed up to run the 10K version of the WWFOR. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t a local 10K that made sense for that weekend.  (As it turned out, hubby go sick and wasn’t up to leaving the house that weekend anyway).  I had a 10 mile long run scheduled for Saturday the 10th, so I ran 4 miles as a warm-up, and then ran 10K for a virtual ‘North San Jose/Milpitas 10K road race’.  I got a bit of a late start, but the ‘race officials’ were willing to wait for me (the Nike+ is great that way!)  There were no frills at the start:

I like to bring my own water bottle on all my runs, but I did depend on the ‘hydration stations’ to fill up Maggie’s collapsible water dish, making this race completely ‘green’:

Here’s the second water stop:

The weather cooperated nicely, not too warm or sunny, withjust enough breeze to feel cool.  I went just about as fast as I’m able to run with Maggie, about 9:04 pace for a ‘race’time of 56:30.  She’s a short distance sprinter (think Usain Bolt, she’d beat him), but just won’t go below a 9 minute mile for very far.  She loves a cloudy day with a long run of 10 minute miles.  Just try dragging a 65 pound dog faster than she wants to go, I dare you!  It will definitely affect your overall pace.

Back in early 2007,after adopting an energetic shelter dog who needed exercise, I decided to make a change in my life and joined Weight Watchers to get healthy and back to amore attractive weight.  I started running as just a part of my overall weight loss plan, but I found out that I?m a runner!  I've been running ever since I completed the Couch to 5K training program in June of 2007. I was successful at losing theweight that I wanted to, and I've kept it off so far, but running has become apart of who I am (wife, mother, daughter, runner).

Not too terribly long after I reached my goal weight, and then ran my first half marathon (13.1 miles), my dad, Steve, was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma.  This is a cancer of the blood plasma, and it was first discovered in my dad because it was found that he had a brain tumor that had to be urgently removed.  At the same time, he had another tumor that severely impacted his hip, creating much pain and taking away his mobility.  Fortunately, he came through the surgery very well, and radiation treatment cleared up the hip pain entirely.  He has gone on to have other significant treatment and a relapse, so the story continues, and his struggles with this disease continue to be an inspiration to all as he maintains his spirits and vitality.

Being a member of the running community has given me the opportunity to unite two areas of my life in an especially meaningful way. I can run a challenging race on an inspiring course, and work to raise funds for a most worthy cause that is very close to my heart because of how a terrible disease has affected my family.  I'vechosen to run this year's Big SurHalf Marathon in Monterey on November 15 as a charity run for the Multiple Myeloma Research Fund.  In this small way I can feel like I'm doingsomething to try to make this disease more bearable for my dad and other patients like him.

The mission of the MMRF is to urgently and aggressively fund research that will lead to the development of new treatments for multiple myeloma. Asthe world's number-one funder of multiple myeloma research, the MMRF has raisedmore than $120 million to fund 90 laboratories worldwide.  They are a top rated charity, funneling more than 93% of donations to research and related programs.

I hope that you can join me in supporting this excellent cause.  I have raised almost $350 toward my goal of $1,500 by race day.  I have my own donation website so it is easy to make a tax-deductible donation online. I've gotten things started by donating $10 for every mile that I'll race, but you can give as much or as little as you like, every $1 counts!

You can follow my training day by day on the dailymile.com where I will regale you with all my triumphs and struggles (and lots of sweat)as I train to get faster and stronger.  I am challenging myself to finish this race in under 2 hours.  This is by no means even close to a fast time for runners more experienced than I, but it is significantly faster than I've run before, so I have been training very hard since July to achieve it.  And if you happen to be in the Monterey area on November 15, I can use all the cheerleaders that I can get.

I ran the 10K portion of the Santa Cruz Half Marathon and 10K last year, and since hubby has taken up running now, I encouraged him to sign up for the 10K this year instead of being my designated photographer.  So I didn?t even bring our camera. You will have to content yourself with my hideous official race photos.

Hubby and I left town right after work Friday afternoon to try to beat some of the traffic over the hill, so we arrived at our motel by about 5:30.  I let hubby nap while I finished up this month?s Runner?s World. I particularly enjoyed the excerpt from ?Once a Runner? and am looking forward to reading the book.

While we were in San Francisco I tried to avoid obvious tourist restaurants, but this time I decided to embrace my inner tourist and try dinner on the Santa Cruz Wharf at Olito?s. It was nearly as loud as our disastrous dinner in North Beach, but at least the meal cost less and we didn?t have drunken beer drinkers hovering over us.  We walked back to our room and went to bed, like the old fogies we are.

Saturday we planned to have a big carb-filled breakfast instead of the traditional night-before-the-race pasta dinner.  I found Zachary?s on Yelp.com as one of the best bets for breakfast in Santa Cruz, so we walked for about 20 minutes to downtown.  Luckily the wait was not long, and we were soon enjoying our carb-load. Hubby had ?Mike?s Mess? and a Guinness, and I had the sourdough pancake with eggs & chicken apple sausage. We also ordered a side of jalapeno cornbread to try.  Hubby was a bit disappointed due to the large size of mushrooms and the large quantity of potatoes (apparently he was not totally on board with the carb loading plan) in his meal, but I thoroughly enjoyed my meal, and the free-trade coffee was quite good too.

We spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon exploring downtown, really enjoying Logos book/music store.  It specializes in used books and music, with lots of other obscure new books as well.  Hubby picked out a couple of gems, and I got a lovely book of crochet stitches that really inspired me to think about taking it up again.

After walking back to our room, we took a nice long nap(it?s so nice to just relax!)  With the Boardwalk just a couple of blocks away, we headed over to find a snack.  It was very crowded with all the folks from over the hill looking to keep cool at the beach for the day.  I felt no desire at all to fight the crowds to get on any rides, so hubby and I each enjoyed a chocolate dipped ice cream cone while we walked up along the ocean to the lighthouse to check out the first section of the race course and watch the surfers.  This was pretty entertaining, and we also were lucky enough to see a whale.

For dinner we planned to eat light to avoid anything bulky in our systems for race day.  We spotted a Jamba Juice in downtown, so we walked (again!) over there and had their breakfast style smoothies (fruit, yogurt, & soymilk).  We had hoped to hit up the cookie store I noticed earlier for another sweet treat, but it was either closed or we missed it while walking by.  So that ended another exciting night in Santa Cruz.

Our room was very quiet, and I didn?t have the nerves that kept me awake pre-race in San Francisco. I slept like a baby.  Got up at 6am to coffee up and eat a banana and do some bathroom business.  After a bit of a tussle with the room?s coffee maker and a slight panic at the thought of a coffee-free run, I was ultimately successful with all my pre-race routine.  Hubby and I were quite pleased to leave the room just about 15  minutes prior to race start and walk past all the traffic heading in to the parking lots.  I wore my pink Asics racer back top and new compression shorts, and was immediately patting myself on the back, because even before 8 am, it was comfortable shorts weather.  There were lots of people in long sleeves and long pants, don?t they check the weather report?

Hubby and I tsk-tsked as we passed the porta-potty lines, then I took my place mid pack and waved good-bye to him as we started the race(the 10K started 15 minutes after the half). There is a pretty steep but short hill at the beginning, so I used it to keep my pace controlled at the start, hitting 10:20 for the first mile.  Then I let myself get carried along more,doing approximately 9 minute miles for mile 2 and 3 (I can only approximate,because I am Garmin-challenged, and my Nike + sensor died just a few days before the race?horrors!).  A bit past mile 3 is a pretty good hill into UC Santa Cruz, so that slowed me a bit, but then it was onto a rather narrow trail (with horse poop!) that rolled up and down pretty good.  My strategy with hills is to slow going up, then make up the time by flying down.  I know that this is tough on the quads, but for this kind of distance it has not been a problem for me. 

For this middle section of the race, I settled back down to more of my target pace of 9:40 ? 9:50, though I might have been able to go faster on a wider roadway with more space to pass other runners.  As we entered Wilder Ranch State Park at about 45 minutes in, the first of the speedy men were headed back, and I spotted the first woman at about 49 minutes. Since hubby was doing the 10K with a later start, I had asked him to tell me how it felt as the speedy runners pass by, do they ?whoosh??  They always start in the front, and are always turning around and coming towards me, so I have never been passed up by someone seriously faster than me.  These are the silly things I think about anyway.

The course in Wilder Ranch follows a trail along the ocean-side cliffs, for amazing views and about 5 degrees cooler weather, and both were much appreciated.  This was my favorite part of the race, but I lost some time here.  After I exited the park and passed the mile 9 marker, I found my overall pace had slowed below 10 minute miles. I felt good, so I picked up the pace to try to make up some time in the last three miles.  I think the down hills were more in my favor for the return, because my overall pace fell below 10 minutes:

Half Marathon time: 2:08:30

Overall pace:                9:49

Overall finish:                1185 of 2608

40 something women: 134 of 362

Hubby was looking at the 10K race clock, so he wasn?t expecting me at the finish line when I arrived.  So he didn?t get to see that I was expecting that sandy finish this year and powered through, even though two guys blew by me. 

The food was only OK, especially since I don?t care for bagels, which were the only carb source available besides fruit.   We picked up our t-shirts, disappointed that they were not technical shirts like last year.  We had arranged for a late checkout in order to shower and change before our now traditional post-half marathon trip to Cheesecake Factory.

I had been looking forward to this lunch for a couple of months; it helped keep me motivated through some tough training days.  I encouraged our boys to drive over to meet us (they had never been) so we made it a nice family Sunday outing.  Since portions are so large, I ate half my meal to save room for half my piece of Adam?s Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple cheesecake, and savored every bite while making up for my 1300 calories burned that morning.  This is not the only reason, or even the most important reason I run, but it is definitely in the top 10.

I was not nearly as sore after this race as I was for my first half marathon last year.  I did experience some DOMS in the couple of days following, especially in the quads(no surprise there).  I also think that my cross training (especially the stationary bike) helped to strengthen my quads and core, which really contributed to my ability to stay strong on all the hills.  All in all, I?m quite pleased with how I did.  I think that the warmer weather and crowded trails slowed me a bit, and with better race conditions I might have gone even faster than my goal pace.  I would hope that the race organizers don?t let the field get any larger than this year, as the course seemed pretty near capacity on the trail sections and water stations.  I will definitely run this one next year, since it?s so close and so scenic.

With my half marathon coming up this Sunday, I’m taking some time to review my training and finalize my race goals.  After tonight’s easy 3 mile run, I will have completed 54 training runs for a total of 365 miles over the course of 18 weeks on the FIRST half marathon plan.  I’ve managed to remain injury free, but I did have to deal with a stubborn cold that I picked up a couple of weeks ago that turned a 12 mile planned long run into a difficult, cough plagued 4.5 mile wheeze-fest (but it felt better to sweat than to lie around on the couch).  Luckily I’m feeling fine now, and my lingering cough no longer wakes me up at night.

My two major take-aways from this training cycle are:

• I detest track workouts, but running fast is the only way to get faster.  I uniformly dreaded the days of my speed work, and always dawdled before getting ready to go out.  I also came back feeling completely used up and slightly abused.  And the running round and round!  Kill me N O W.  I spent the entire time asking myself WHY AM I DOING THIS?  Can’t I QUIT NOW? 

• I love love love long runs, with 12-14 miles as my favorite distance.  This time last year, 12 miles was the furthest I had ever run, and 10 miles was still major undertaking.  But now I refer to it as ‘only a 10 mile run’ and look forward to longer efforts.  Longer runs give me a chance to really break away from normal everyday routine, and really feel the movement through space and see my neighborhood.  Maggie really likes going long and slow too.  We know where all the squirrels hang out at, and she is ready in case one wants to cross our path.

I also managed to be fairly consistent with cross training, nearly always completing a rowing session as well as a stationary bike session each week.  I think I see some results in my upper body from the rowing (and it helped my core too), and I know that my quads have benefited from the cycling.  I can highly recommend the stationary rowing for a good full body workout, especially if you don’t cheat the movement and really lean back to hit your core.  I also felt a good burn in my glutes which I didn’t expect.

For Sunday’s race, my official MacMillan predicted pace is 9:41/mile, which would be just under 2:07 for the half.  This would take a perfect effort on my part, with no porta-potty trips along the way.   My more realistic goal is to finish in less than 2:10.  I will have to be careful not to eat anything too bulky the night before, get up early Sunday morning to coffee up and hope for movement before 8 am.  Sometimes I am not very reliable in this department, so I am just hoping for the best.

Worst case, I’ll just enjoy a fabulous race course by the ocean, and enjoy what is shaping up to be a perfect day weather-wise.  My new favorite quote is from Dan Browne, which is in this month’s Runner’s World:

‘Before a race, I focus on my goal and the hard training I’ve done.  For me, races are a celebration of my training.’

So I am going to celebrate my ass off.

I signed up for a fun ‘tune-up’ race in preparation of my April half-marathon, the Emerald Across the Bay 12K in San Francisco on March 15.  The main attraction of this race for me was the run across the Golden Gate Bridge.  After a lifetime in the Bay Area, I’ve never walked across the bridge.  I have a vague recollection of  having sulked in the car as a teenager while my parents took some out of town visitors up onto the bridge.  After two years as a runner, I was due for a run across the bridge to be checked off my list of things to do. 

While it would be totally do-able to drive to the shuttle bus pickup point on Sunday morning, I figured it would be more fun to spend Saturday in the city and stay the night in the Fisherman’s Wharf area. 

We got kind of a late start driving up (my fault) and hit all the traffic being diverted around the parade on Market Street.  So we parked as soon as we could, and walked down the several blocks to Civic Center Plaza where the parade ended and the ‘Irish Festival’ was taking place.  I guess I should have been expecting it, but hubby and I have been to many Celtic festivals, and this was more what we were looking for, but the SF Irish festival was just a gathering of all the stray vendors that would normally set up elsewhere in the city, some multi-ethnic food booths, and about three large corrals for green-beer drinking.  Apparently St. Patrick’s day is now the Irish Mardi Gras, because everyone was sporting many strands of green beads, and a couple of the parade ‘floats’ had members tossing green beads to the crowd.  The ‘floats’ consisted mostly of flat bed trailers holding various groups of people drinking beer and waving to the crowd.  Having just watched the SF Chinese New Year parade just about a month ago, this was just more lame than words can express.  We left very quickly to go grab some lunch far away from the drunken green-wearing Irish wannabes.

We made it to a shopping mall but gave in to a substandard food court meal because we were STARVING.  The Mrs. Fields frosting decorated chocolate chip cookie was totally un-called for, but worth every calorie.  YUM.  We then drove over to our hotel, checked in, and I spent a blissful couple of hours reading magazines while hubby took a nap. 

I rousted hubby out of bed so we could go eat dinner.  We wandered around the Ghirardelli Square area a bit, but I just wasn’t feeling like a tourist meal, paying double for mediocre food just because of the view.  So we walked up Columbus Avenue to the North Beach restaurants.  More St. Patrick’s revelers!  We had a really hard time deciding which restaurant to choose, so hubby opted for Washington Street Bar and Grill, because we had gone there AGES ago (it was when I was pregnant with my oldest son, we saw Diane Sawyer there that night).  Yeah, we have no imagination and we don’t like to try new things.  The restaurant had closed a few years ago and was now under new management.  Problem is, there is a large bar area directly next to the seating area, and we were seated at a tiny table squished next to the half-height wall keeping the bar patrons segregated from the restaurant.  Why did we agree to sit there?  Because we are spineless, that’s why.  So we spent our dinner alternating between being forced to listen to drunken people yell their conversations at each other, and trying to yell our own conversation.  The evening was capped off by the bus boy dropping a cup of ketchup on hubby’s leg, then hubby discovering that his steak meal was really a plate of stale French fries with about 5 ounces of steak and a pathetic wilted pile of spinach leaves, and then two guys started leaning on the wall behind me to carry on their conversation about 1 foot from my right ear.  We did get a free dessert because of the ketchup spill, but with a total bill of nearly $100, I left feeling like I’d just had my wallet stolen. 

The hotel bed was quite comfy, but I did not sleep well at all due to race jitters.  Every time I woke up, I’d tell myself that the race was just for fun, stop stressing, but it didn’t work.  I got up at 6:45, ate a quick banana, made coffee and got dressed.  I took my coffee with me to walk to the shuttle bus stop, in the drizzling rain.

This race usually draws about 5,000 runners, and they run it in a three wave start.  I was in the second wave, so I took my place in the loooong line for a yellow school bus across the bridge.  There were many comments about running in the rain, and ‘why did I sign up for this again?’ Once we made it over to Fort Baker on the Marin side of the bridge, there was more standing around in and even heavier rain.  The race had a sweats check here, and I debated for about 30 minutes whether or not to check my now drenched sweat jacket and track pants.  I finally checked it after all just a few minutes before the second wave start.

The race hits a pretty steep uphill pretty quickly as it makes it’s way up to the bridge.  I could hear everyone huffing and puffing even over the music in my earphones.  I walked the last quarter of that hill just to catch my breath.  We were not on the bridge roadway, but on the pedestrian section, so there was only room for 2-3 runners across for that portion.  I just tried to keep from stepping into puddles, as my main concern was keeping my feet somewhat dry, which kept me from enjoying the view as much as I’d have liked to.  I found a guy who seemed to be going my pace, so I tried to stay about six feet in back of him as other people passed me.

The downhill from the bridge was at just the right angle that made running fun and fast, just lean into it and let gravity help you fly.  The course then makes it’s way to Fort Point and then a turn around to proceed along the Golden Gate Promenade to the finish at Aquatic Park.  Since this was more of a recreational race for me, I kept to a sustainably hard pace.  By about mile 6 it really started to rain, and my socks got well and truly wet.  I had on a pair of thick winter weight wicking socks and they did their job well, my feet stayed warm and I had no blisters.

I finished in 1:10:50, which is a 9:30 average pace, 43rd out of 169 45-49 year old ladies.  That is just one place out of being in the top quarter of my age division, and I was firmly in the top third of the women.  The rain kept quite a few people home (wimps!) because there were less than 3,000 finishers this year.

Hubby and I stayed a while at the post race festivities where I collected my free goodies, enjoyed some hot coffee, then got too chilled in my wet clothes to stay any longer.  We went back to our hotel and I enjoyed a blissful hot shower thanks to a 12 noon checkout time.  We then went out for some lunch (at one of those touristy restaurants with a view), but I stuck with a grilled chicken sandwich in order to save my running calories for a truly divine ice cream sundae at the Ghirardelli ice cream fountain.  It was called a ‘Mint Bliss’ and it most definitely Minty and Blissful.

Hubby drove home, and I put the seat back and slept the righteous sleep of the truly tired.  Thanks sweetie, for another fun race experience.  You are the best pit crew ever.

Saturday was my scheduled longest run in my half marathon training plan—15 miles.  Two weeks ago I ran 14 miles, which was also my longest to date.  That went well, so I was feeling fairly confident going just one more mile.  Hubby was also planning a run, so I thought we might try running together for a bit, then he could take Maggie home when they were both tired.

Just so happens that JC Penney was offering one of their Saturday morning sales, and since I was in desperate need of some brown dress pants that do not make me look like I am wearing a diaper, I went for a bit of shopping prior to running.  I still have some clothes that I bought when I was about 15 pounds from goal weight, and they just look a wee bit sloppy, so I’m replacing them when I find a good sale.  So I searched the racks for some size 4’s and some new tops and made my way to the dressing room.  I was surprised that I still feel a panic-y anxiety just before I pull on a new pair of size 4 pants.  I get this fear that they won’t fit over my thighs and hips or button comfortably.  For many years while my weight was going up and I was avoiding the scale, the fit of my pants was my main accuser.  I would try to wear an older pair of pants, and they would tell me in no uncertain terms that my fat ass was even fatter.  Or I would squeeze into them, and feel that uncomfortable feeling all day of the waistband cutting into my midsection, leaving a deep red mark by the end of the day.

Long story (not so) short, the size 4’s fit fine, maybe even just a bit loose.  I got them for $16 each, which was much better than the $30 ‘sale’ price Kohl’s was trying to get for their similar dress pants.  I find it interesting that Kohl’s is now devoting about a third of their women’s section floor space to clearance racks, while their newer items seem way overpriced even when they are on sale.  This doesn’t seem like a sustainable business model.

Anywho, this is supposed to be a long run blog post.  After I got back home, and after much explaining to the husband about how and when we would meet up to run together, I finally made it out the door with Maggie at about 12:30.  I fueled up with a banana prior, and took my Cytomax and package of ShotBloks with me to get me through my expected 2 ½ hour run.  The weather was fabulous (partly cloudy and in the 60’s), so I wore shorts and a wicking tank top.  My target pace for this run was my planned Half Marathon Pace plus 30 seconds, or 10:11 minutes/mile.  It has been challenging for me in the past to slow down to this pace, so my thinking was that I would have to slow down while I ran with hubby, then I could speed up later to make up the difference.  My comfortable long run cruising pace seems to be about 9:50 minutes/mile, but I’m trying to follow the FIRST plan closely to give it a fair test.

Once I met up with hubby at the park, I was at about mile 6.  The one time I checked, my Nike+ said we were going at just over a 11:30 mile pace.  Hubby made it about 1 mile at that pace, then we slowed down a bit to catch his breath.  After the 2nd mile, he took some walk breaks while I ran ahead slowly and then ran back to him.  By the 3rd mile, I started running ahead and back faster so I’d lose less time.  I was literally running circles around him. He was pretty spent by three miles, and Maggie was happy to go home with nearly nine miles for her day.  I ate half my package of ShotBloks and kept going at closer to my planned HMP.  By mile 10 it started to rain, and kept raining for about 30 minutes.  I told myself ‘what’s a little rain when you’re already hot and sweaty?’  By the time I got past 13 miles, I was really starting to feel the increased pace, but would rather just put my head down and run and be done.  The real discomfort started after I finished, and was doing my cool down walk home, ouch!  My legs were so sore, I was limping.  But I hit my target pace exactly for the 15 miles, so mission accomplished.

I whined enough to convince hubby to make me a fruit smoothie to refuel, thanks sweetie!  After that, a hot shower and some naprosen took the edge off for the rest of the day.  I didn’t feel totally spent like I do after a race, just stiff and sore and kind of old.  And, um, yeah, I don’t feel at all tempted to train for a marathon this year with those 18 and 20 mile training runs.  I’ll stick with the half marathon thank you very much.
 

Saturday's hike couldn't have been better-perfect weather, no mud (amazing for January), and great company (hubby).

We left town with scouts and parents by about 7:20 am, making it to the park by about 8:45.  The parking lot was still in shade at that hour, so it was quite chilly and left me wondering if I should have worn a heavier jacket.  But we set off on the trail to the caves near a small reservoir.

By this time we were nicely warmed up and the sun was shining, so we all packed away our jackets before we headed up the trail.

This part of the trail was of course all up hill and switchbacky.  I tend to power walk up, because I just feel like I get a momentum going, and going slow just feels like trudging.  This felt pretty good, but hubby was starting to huff and puff, so I slowed down a bit to pace him better.  Pretty soon we got our first panoramic view as a reward.

Of course the scouts scampered up ahead and climbed around on every single available rock.

I found the manzanita interesting.  Stopping long enough let me hear that they were literally buzzing with bees, since the trees were in bloom.

We made it to what seemed like the top of the mountain, but it was an excellent place to stop for lunch, since it was about 11:30 and there was actually a pit toilet up there.  Since scouts eat so quick, there was plenty of time for more rock climbing.

We came across another scout troop up there, they were from King City.

Soon enough it was time to move on, but first we had to decide which trail to take.  This sign was daunting:

but the map showed this trail was shorter, and perhaps would offer better views and less switch backs.  So bring on the steep and narrow!

We were soon rewarded for our work.  Note the folks at the bottom left of this picture--they are not so sure yet, they haven't seen the view that awaits them!

The incredible views just kept coming.

The return hike down to the parking lot was a bit tough on the joints, but most of my soreness was in my neck, as I had to keep looking down to keep from tripping on rocks.  The last time hubby did this hike with the scouts was about three years ago, and his knee gave out on him so he had to be carried down the last mile of the trail.  He had that knee repaired surgically two years ago, so he spent the last mile down reminiscing about being rescued, pointing out every rock where he had stopped to rest before trying to go on until the rangers arrived.  He was so proud that he is such better shape now and the hike for him was hard but completely do-able.  I am proud of both of us, because I never even considered going on that hike three years ago when I was still wearing my fat suit and occupying the couch of doom.

Today was mostly a rest day, and mostly timewasting on my laptop waiting for my new virus software to do a full scan and then installing Windows XP Service Pack 3.  I did take a long walk after dinner with hubby and Maggie.

For lunch I had my awesome salmon burger--I pan fry a salmon burger (from Costco) 5 minutes per side, toast up a high fiber english muffin, add mustard, relish, and a tomato slice for a totally filling meal for only about 6 points.  I usually eat the rest of the tomato too on the side. 

Tomorrow I'll be going on an all day hike with hubby, my youngest son and my son's boy scout troop. This will be the third year that I've gone on the January hike with the troop.  The last two years we've gone to Sunol Regional Wilderness that is in the rolling east bay hills east of Fremont.  The park is also a paradise for

Maggie, because dogs are allowed off leash on the trails.  She was in heaven running back and forth with all the boys and the other dog on the hike.

The first year I went, I had only been walking regularly for a few months, and I was pretty wiped out by the time we got to the top of the first peak.  I'm afraid I was one of the people who encouraged our hike leader to head back down rather than keep hiking further into the park.  However, last year I was in the first group of mostly scouts that made it to the top, and when the rest of the parents caught up, I had to disagree that it was a tough hike.  It really didn't feel too bad, and I ended up running at times further into the hike.  What a difference a year of running can make!

This year we're going to Pinnacles National Monument which should be a more challenging hike.  The weather will be ideal for both hiking and photography.  Unfortunately, we have to leave Maggie home, since dogs aren't allowed on the trails. 

We'll still make our long run for the week, I'll just shift it to Sunday afternoon for my 9 miler.